Pupils hear about role of science in sport

Nic Gill
Nic Gill
A group of Otago teenagers was given a window into the world of high performance sports yesterday.

All Blacks strength and conditioning coach Nic Gill and Southern Steel and Central Pulse performance analysts Fiona Watson and Joanna Horan spoke to a group of about 115 at the Glenroy Auditorium.

Twenty schools were represented, as the trio spoke about the role of science in sport in the event hosted by the New Zealand International Science Festival.

Gill spoke of wanting to show ``how cool science is'' and trying to show how it could be applied in a sporting context.

He said the key part of his job was to figure out what needed to be given to players, seeing how they responded and then seeing what else could be tried to improve that response.

Having worked for the All Blacks since 2008, he said one of the big challenges in the team was to keep learning and staying ahead of the rest.

Science was a big part of that and left the team always evaluating what it did.

Joanna Horan
Joanna Horan

He spoke of not only gathering data, but gathering the right data, which came from experience.

From there it was important to interpret it and use it in a way that benefited the players and teams.

Watson and Horan said similar things, although they focused on the pathway they took to get to where they were.

Both recent graduates of the Otago Polytechnic's sport performance analysis programme, they had taken similar paths.

A key role for both was gathering data during games for their teams, which would be fed through live to the coaches during the game.

They said it was important to be accurate, so the information was useful to help the team make decisions as to what to change and what to keep.

Both had spent time volunteering before getting paid jobs, which they identified as crucial to getting to where they were.

They also said passion for sport, a can-do attitude and the ability to communicate well were important to a sports analyst.

More teams looking to analyse both themselves and their opposition, and people with those skills were becoming more highly sought after.

 

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